Strange Conversations....

Earlier this afternoon, Remy and I were out in the front enjoying the sunshine. An elderly lady (whom I've never seen before) walked up to my fence and yelled, "Hey Remy! Hey Remy!" I was a bit concerned at first that she might be a dog napper (it happens!). Remy wasn't sure what to make of her either and he started barking at her.

I walked up to her, said hello and asked her how she "knew" Remy. She said her husband walks by every day with her grandson and had met Remy about a year ago. She then said she was "interested in meeting this Remy (emphasis on this)." Then...she told me that her daughter has a dog named Remy. She introduced herself and I did the same. When she heard my name was Erin, she sucked in her breath and said, "Oh! Oh!" I asked her if she was okay. She said, "Oh, Erin! You are not going to like this one bit!" I braced myself for I don't know what and waited for her to finish. She continued with her story and said she had a nephew named Aaron. Or used to. It seems he died 6 weeks ago. She said she was worried about our coincidences. My dog's name is Remy. Her daughter's dog is named Remi. Her dead nephew's name was Aaron. My name is Erin. I told her not to worry - I'm sure it was just that. A coincidence & besides...the spellings are all different.

Just then the bus came and she collected her grandson, said goodbye and was gone. Strange!

Wash Those Hands! - Updated!

With the recent Swine Flu Scare - I sent my kids to school with extra bottles of hand sanitizer yesterday. I thought I would purchase a few more to have on hand and went to Fred Meyer to get some. Freddy's was all sold out. This morning on the radio, I heard a recipe for homemade hand sanitizer. I will definitely try to make it and see if it works or not.

If you want to try, here is the recipe:

Hand Sanitizer Gel
1/2 cup aloe vera gel
1/4 cup 99% rubbing alcohol
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon essential oil, optional
Mix ingredients together. Pour into a pump-style bottle or a squeeze bottle. Use a quarter sized dollop and rub hands together. Wipe residue off of hands with a paper towel.

**Dollar Store has LOTS of hand sanitizer. I stopped by there on a break this afternoon. If you need some, check them out first.

PW's Dump Cake

Have you checked out Pioneer Woman lately? If not, do! I check her site out everyday. There is always something new on there. I have made so many recipes from her site...and have LOVED them all! I made a new recipe today - DUMP CAKE. I was VERY skeptical of this cake. First of all...it required margarine. I have NEVER bought margarine in my life! I grew up on butter and my kids have grown up on butter. I felt guilty paying the $.79 for 4 quarters of the stuff. I only used one stick - so if you want to make this cake and live in the area, I will give you a 'stick.' I fear the stuff will live in my fridge until the next time I bake this cake!
Anyways...I baked the cake...and it was good! Try it! I may make it for the Jr High Teacher Appreciation Luncheon next week!

New from Japan!

I ran into my friend Kumiko today. She recently received a package from Japan. Inside were watermelon flavored Kit Kat bars. She gave me 12. :)

Looks like a regular Kit Kat.

I thought they might be pink or green on the inside. Nope.

They weren't half bad...a little sweet but good with a glass of milk or hot tea.

Thanks Kumiko!!!

Happy Birthday Annette!

Dear Annette,
I am so sorry I missed your birthday! I think you are the greatest! Don't be mad at me for posting this picture...you are so cute!!! Hope you had a great birthday!!! My gift to you is...your very own blog post! Enjoy!
Fondly,

Erin :)

Happy Birthday Annette!

www.imagechef.com...check out this site for FUN time wasters!

Sunday Project

Yesterday we bought 3 mini herb gardens from Trader Joe's. They smelled so good! This morning, Omid decided to make some cedar boxes to plant the herbs. He is so talented! pineapple mint, spearmint, oregano, thyme, savory & lavender

frame

Stained (by yours truly) & finished!

Finished herb box.

Good job Omid!

impromptu party

Earlier today, Omid and I stopped by Trader Joe's to pick up some cheese & wine. Omid looked at all the wine & cheese we had piled into our cart and said, "we might as well call Lin & Tammie and have them over." So, I whipped out my phone and asked them if they wanted to come over - in about an hour or two.

Omid & his mom prepping all the food.

It was good...lots of wine/cheese/bread. Yummers! Let me just say this: Whenever Omid cooks/prepares ANYTHING...it is always beautiful!

Attack Vizsla

Who would have ever thought this sweet,gentle,docile, scaredy-cat dog (just like Scooby) would have it in him to lunge, bark and growl menacingly at a dear friend?


Not me! That's for sure! But that is exactly what happened yesterday afternoon. Remy and I went to the HS to pick up Nas. My friend Arnita saw us and came over to say hi. Remy knows and loves Arnita...but he wasn't prepared for her greeting. I had my window rolled down and Arnita popped her head in the window and said, "Hello Remy!!!" Remy lunged to the window (he was sitting in the passenger seat) and I had to grab his collar so he didn't fly out the window. He was barking like crazy & growling (like I've never heard him do before). His hackles were up and he was not happy. Arnita was pleading with Remy, "Remy...it's me!" I finally managed to get Remy off my lap and out of the car so he could 'smell' Arnita and calm down. Once Remy was outside, he was barking, growling and shaking like crazy. Arnita sat down so Remy could smell her. After about a minute...he was convinced she was who she said she was and he climbed on her lap and kissed her. He sat there for the next ten minutes, happy as a clam & washing Arnita's face for her.

I was so thankful that 1) Remy didn't hurt Arnita and 2) to know if some crazy person ever comes up & tries to attack, Remy really does have it in him to defend his family. This was very comforting to know...as Vizslas are known as excellent 'watch dogs', but horrible 'guard dogs.' Remy certainly dispelled that myth today.

I love my momma.

I'm a good boy!

I decided to stay home today. I woke up and my eye was almost swollen shut and purple/red. I asked Nas..."if you were a K kid or first grader...would you be scared looking at this eye?" Nas said, "YES!" I then went to wake Matty for school. Before I could even ask him for a second opinion, he looked at me and said, "Yuck! Your eye!" So....I decided I wouldn't risk hearing tons of kids say "Yuck", "Gross" or some other new word I haven't heard yet. I have my self esteem to think about thank you very much.Here is a picture of my eye after I iced it for a while this morning. No more swelling - just red. But still not nice to look at.

Here I am after my unscheduled eye surgery this afternoon. I went to the eye doctor for a weird bump I had on my lower lid. Hoping for eye drops, the doctor said, "Let's remove it instead." The worst part: getting two shots that STUNG near my eyeball. Not fun. I am in pain now and waiting for the Advil to kick in. I told the doctor I had a blog and wanted to take a photo of the cyst for you all to see. He said that wasn't such a good idea. I looked at it and it was icky. You've been spared. :) Remy trying to smell the patch.

Netflix This!

I have been waiting & waiting for Vicky Cristina Barcelona to come from Netflix & it arrived today. I popped it in the dvd player and watched it. It was cute. It made me want to hop on a plane and fly to Barcelona. The movie is full of Gaudi's architecture (he plays an important theme in the movie) & it is so very beautiful.
This is a quirky Woody Allen movie and I laughed my way through it. If you don't like Woody Allen movies...you won't like this movie. If you like Spain, red wine, bougainvillea, white wine, & beautiful scenery...you will probably like this movie. As for me...I need to find out how I can move my family to Spain-pronto!

Remy is featured as a Clean Water Canine this month. You can check out his photo here.

Praying for Stellan

If you have been following Stellan's story, you know today he had surgery. None of us had any orange to wear...but we did have an orange Sharpie! Remy posed for the picture and I emailed it in. Hopefully we weren't too late to make the 'orange' gallery today. See Stellan's orange gallery here.

africa is still on my brain

This was so fun to make! Make your own word mosaic here.

Picnic

We spent yesterday afternoon down at the Port of Camas-Washougal and had a picnic. Not a cloud in the sky and 78*! It was lovely!


Matty: excited over the foot long hot dogs.

Nas refusing the hot dog bun.
Omid wondering who ate all the pound cake & sad he had to eat plain old sponge cake with his strawberries & fruit dip.

It wouldn't be a trip to the Port without some kind of mishap happening there. This time, a fisherman drove his boat onto his trailer and forgot to lock the wench. When he drove up the ramp, the boat slid off the trailer.

The Washougal Police were summoned but couldn't do a thing to help the poor man. He had to back the boat down into the water. It was so sad to watch. The engine made a terrible scraping noise the whole way down. Once the boat was in the water, several onlookers stopped to help. The boat was reloaded onto the trailer and locked into position this time. I'm sure that poor man will never forget to lock the boat into place again.

Laurel...these kissy photos are just for you!

The top 3 kissy photos are from today! No forced kisses this time!

The others are from Saturday.

Gimme a kiss!!!!

Remy didn't want to be kissed at all on Saturday...too many birds & rabbits running around to distract him. We forced kisses on him while walking the Heritage Trail at Lacamas Lake. What a beautiful day!

After our walk

Ribs & Make This!!!

Omid made ribs for dinner tonight...sorry that recipe is top secret! Papa: Let's have a rib cook off!
Painting the ribs with bbq sauce.

Now for the recipe I am sharing:

This dessert dip is soooo tasty. We are having it later tonight with pound cake & strawberries. Try it with any fruit or just as a pudding. It's goooooood!

1 3.4 0z box vanilla instant pudding
1 8 oz container of Cool Whip

Make the pudding. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Fold in the Cool Whip.
EAT!